Updated Radio Lane construction detouring

Milling set to begin this week on West Radio Lane at 15th Street

Asphalt milling is set to begin this week on West Radio Lane, starting at 15th Street and progressing east toward Fourth Street by the end of the week.

Contractor delays during the weekend have pushed back slightly the schedule that was advertised late last week by the City of Arkansas City. Milling now will begin Oct. 11 and continue into next week.

The planned schedule of work now is as follows:

Tuesday, Oct. 11 — milling of Radio Lane from 15th to 12th streets, starting at 7:30 a.m. (Arkansas City High School will close its west gates)

Wednesday, Oct. 12 — milling of Radio Lane from 12th to Eighth streets (ACHS will close its east gates and use 15th Street as a detour access)

Thursday, Oct. 13 — milling of Radio Lane from Eighth to Fourth streets (ACHS will encourage all traffic to use 15th Street as a detour access)

Friday, Oct. 14 — work likely to cease early to avoid any interruption to traffic associated with Class 5A State tennis tournament at ACHS

Monday, Oct. 17 — milling of Radio Lane from Fourth to Summit streets (ACHS will encourage all traffic to use 15th and Eighth streets as detour access)

Tuesday, Oct. 18 — complete any milling at drives or intersections and clean up

Oct. 19-26 — asphalt overlay paving of Radio Lane

A detailed schedule of the overlay paving process will be provided to local media and the public early next week, but it should be similar to the sequence described above.

All of the Radio Lane paving work is scheduled to be complete by late October, weather permitting.

The City Commission of Arkansas City voted unanimously on Aug. 2 to approve a contract agreement with Cornejo and Sons LLC, of Wichita, for construction of the North Summit Street and West Radio Lane street improvement and water line replacement project.

The contract, which is for an amount not to exceed $1,800,693.05, includes milling, a new asphalt overlay and new striping on Summit Street, with new concrete intersection approaches on the side roads from Kansas to Walnut avenues.

Radio Lane also will be milled and receive a new 2-inch asphalt overlay, as well as new pavement markings, from 15th to Summit streets.

Also, a new 8-inch water line will replace an old cast-iron water line currently located under Summit Street, between Walnut and Birch avenues. This will address existing failures and water main breaks that have occurred near Country Mart and Community National Bank & Trust.

“Any time the City spends dollars on road construction projects, we look to address any other infrastructure needs that may impact the integrity of the new road,” said Public Works Director Eric Broce.

“In this particular case, we have a history of costly water main breaks under Summit Street, between Birch and Walnut, which have impacted traffic and local businesses. The new water line will be located outside of the driving surface to avoid any future disruptions or damage to the street.”

Work on the water line relocation between Birch and Walnut avenues began last month and is scheduled to be complete by January 2017. The contractor is staging from the old hospital property.

Concrete intersection work on Summit Street is scheduled to begin as early as Oct. 17 and be complete by February 2017. The final asphalt overlay and striping of Summit Street will begin when warmer weather allows, so it might be postponed until early spring in 2017.

The contractor will use traffic control devices to reduce Summit Street to two lanes of traffic through the work zone areas throughout the duration of the project. Any traffic control devices in place will be removed prior to Arkalalah.

Access to local businesses also will be maintained through the construction period.

The actual cost of road construction will be up to $950,693.50. Those funds will come out of the City’s Street Improvement Fund — funded through a five-year, half-cent street sales tax that began in April 2009 and concluded in March 2014 — with at least $189,227.66 remaining in the sales tax fund.

The cost of the new water line is estimated at $550,000, which comes from the Water Distribution Fund, paid for with revenues from the sale of water produced by the City’s Water Treatment Facility.

The $300,000 cost of the Radio Lane mill and overlay will come from the City’s Special Streets Fund, which is expected to total $643,124.83 after annual curb and gutter repairs, as well as the final payment to Andale Ready-Mix for the concrete panel replacement project on Goff Industrial Park Road.